A lot of people are speculating about what caused a Japanese supertanker to receive heavy damage while traveling through the Strait of Hormuz the other day: The Royal Oman Police believe it was an explosion caused by overheating. In an article for the Christian Science Monitor, Justin McCurry has mentioned other possibilities:
* collision with a submarine * collision with a mine * pirate/terrorist attack
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, the owners of the tanker, are leaning towards the attack theory and have hired experts to investigate the incident. The U.S. Navy is in the process of checking the damage and will probably soon have its own official theory about what happened.